Time To Go Back

It’s time to go back.

It’s actually approaching the two-year anniversary of the LOST finale. Does it seem like a lifetime ago? Or does it feel like only yesterday? For me, it feels like both. My memories of watching that last ever episode are crystal clear – and I’ve never actually watched it since.

Now there’s time between us and the end of LOST, there’s space for reflection and objective analysis. Enough distance has been generated to be able to go back to the Island without any rose-tinted spectacles, without being bogged down under the weight of theories and speculation. Now I can go back to LOST with a clear head and the full awareness of how it all ends.



I can go back to the start knowing what awaits at the finish.

I intend to do exactly that; go right back to the beginning, the Pilot episode, and watch the whole thing over. And in between each episode I’ll put down my thoughts, feelings and analysis of how it holds up now – where it’s great, good, and where it’s not so great and, whisper it, where sometimes it really was pretty bad. I’ll be looking for loose ends that perhaps didn’t get tied up, and hopefully spotting new clues, significances and meanings with the benefit of hindsight. It's going to be exhaustive, and exhausting. It's going to be gruelling and it's going to take a long, long time. And, you know, I think I'm rather going to enjoy seeing this mystery unfold now I know how it's resolved.



I intend to be thorough. I intend to be shrewd. This is not to be some wistful wander down a nostalgic path with a happy smile on my face. Right now I hold LOST as the best TV show I’ve ever watched. Now, going back to the start, it’s going to have to earn that accolade anew. Don't get me wrong - I intend to have some fun, too. If we can't laugh along with the thing we love then I don't think it's really love!

It’s a long road ahead. By my reckoning there’s around 120 episodes to wade through and pick apart. Revisiting the good old times can’t be a bad thing, though, can it? Let’s go back to the days of ‘the hatch’, of Mr. Eko and his Jesus stick, of Ethan and ‘Mr. Friendly’, of a time before Aaron was born, of pushing a button, of Walt and Boone and Ana Lucia, of flashbacks becoming flashforwards and then becoming flashafterlifes. It’s all there. It’s all waiting. All we have to do, like a drunken, drugged up Jack once exclaimed, is go back.



It’s time to dig out those old DVDs. Or maybe treat yourselves to a new shiny blu-ray collection. Whatever you watch, however you watch, let’s journey all the way back to the Island together. The Retroview will begin right here with Pilot – Part 1 at the beginning of February.

Are you ready to go back?

4 comments:

Van said...

You are the man.

I also never watched the final episode again, which is odd because I watched every other episode at least 8 times.

Not sure why I couldn't watch it again though, I really think it took a lot out of me.

Anyway, I can't wait for the Retroview analysis - your attention to detail and incredible insight are a credit to all writers.

Keith said...

Hey AC

Great to see you back.

Like you and many others, Lost is my favourite show of all time and like any former addict I've tried to fill the void with Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos ect and for a fix of sheer mind fuckery I've even gone to Leo DiCaprio for Shutter Island and Inception. But nothing else got me quite as hooked as lost.

In the weeks after the show ended I rewatched the finale a couple of times, both for the feelgood factor and for Kate looking smoking hot. It has crossed my mind to maybe sit down and watch an episode or two since, but I felt like anything less than a full viewing from start to finish wouldn't be doing the show justice.

So, as long as the pace of your retroview doesn't move too quickly I will happily come along, watch the next episode and look forward to your analysis.

Andre7 said...

Hell yes I am ready to go back. With you in the pilot seat. One of the joys of watching the show was in reading your blog later and laughing at the wit.

I hope you live up to your word about not watching it with rose colored lenses though. I for one did not take the finale well at all. The series was a long con, in my view.

The writers played us with tantalizing details that may or may not have panned out. They threw stuff in that egged fans on in their water cooler speculation the next day. Often they did this just to yank our chains, in my opinion.

That was not cool at all. It was a violation of trust, of the ages old contract between story teller and listener.

So please, AC, call a spade a spade when you come upon one.

AngeloComet said...

Hey Andre,

I intend to be fair. I sort of understand that LOST isn't perfect, and that it also has to cater to the whims of television demands (on a major network).

If LOST had been HBO maybe it'd have been a different story. . .